Screaming kids are bad for your ears

Published: 30 June, 2011

• IS it stretching a point to include screaming kids in the protest (Stop that Terrible Row, Letters, June 23)?

The readers may remember your report of my Just William lecture in March. 

The indulgence by parents of their kids screaming these days had struck me, in comparison with the disapproval in the past, as portrayed in the Just William stories.

Your correspondent, who did not wish his identity to be published, was being serious in asking whether the piercing sirens on emergency vehicles cause hearing damage. Again, seriously, I read that a celebrity suffering a screaming child next to him on a long airline flight claims it caused the return of his hearing trouble.

Does a parent who carries in his arms a screaming child beside his ear put her or his hearing at risk?

Any consultants from the audiology department out there – can you hear me? 

KEN ELLIS
Finchley Road, 
NW3